Friday, January 27, 2012

I'm Blogging, and I Know It!

Let's see, aside from my concussion, things have been relatively "normal" at school. We hit a slight rough patch on Tuesday since my partner was also out of school that day, and then I was sent home around noon, but we finished out strong! It just always takes a little creativity and hard work to fit everything in! Isn't it crazy how that works?! { I seriously would rather drag myself in sick than plan for a sub, but thankfully my Sub Tub keeps me covered in a pinch...or a slam in the face. Hahaha!} Thanks for all the bloggy support, by the way! :)

This is sort of disjointed, but I feel like I have a valid excuse this week . :) We worked on generalizations a bit with General Ization, and talked about what he would have seen at indoor recess during his surveillance of our classroom. They went on a little gallery walk again, but this time it was all about making general comments about certain topics. They had a lot of fun, and they really seemed to grasp the concept. :) Yay! My kiddos are on their way to becoming Generalization Gurus... but I am sooooo sorry for the cell phone pictures. I have a Canon that tends to stay at home more than it should!

I have been meaning to mention that I tweaked my Word Work process slightly. Instead of feeling pressured into making two sets of flashcards every week, I have been making extra copies of our spelling and vocabulary lists. I just put a stack in the storage drawers, and the kids go to town. It's so easy to manage and switch out! I am all about making it manageable! I'm in the process of adding a few more goodies, but for now, the center looks essentially like it did at the start of the year but without all of the giant flashcards. :)

We also continued to work on Nonfiction Text Features, so we pulled up a story on the Smartboard through Pearson SuccessNet. This is a great resource for Reading Street teachers! I pull up the Day 4 lesson each week for a whole group reading and discussion of text features whenever the focus is on nonfiction. It's quick, it's eco-friendly, and the kids enjoy it! To ensure that the kiddos keep referring back to our previous lessons, I started putting together nonfiction text features on display on one of my more functional bulletin board spaces.

In other news, I totally fall in love with my students more and more every day. The Finding Bigfoot Crew is still going strong, so that pretty much cracks me up! These are recruitment posters for their indoor recess research clan... it's seriously HUGE.

Lately though, there's another craze hitting Rm. 13. It involves a little red guy named Elmo. Tuesday. after picking my kids up from Art {before going home}, three of my boys started singing to me. I am pretty sure they didn't stop singing it until about 2:45 this afternoon for an assembly. That's only a slight exaggeration. Without further adieu, "I'm Elmo and I Know It"!

16 comments:

ha I heard a snippet of the elmo song on the radio the other day... I definitely need to show my kids! They will LOVE it!! I love your General! Such a cute idea!❤ SandraSweet Times in Firstsweettimesinfirst@gmail.com

Love seeing pics of your room! We will start working on nonfiction next week, our Polar Animals unit begins then, too. Do you think your Arctic unit would work for First graders? I think I love it! Thanks!

Since I'm so new to blogging, I'm posting this on your blog and mine. Bad manners??!

Thank you, Amanda, for the sweet comments about my room. I have a serious problem with borders. I like them on EVERYTHING! A couple of years ago I just got tired of store bought borders! I cut some butcher paper into strips and accordion folded. Then I scrunched it as I stretched it out to hang. Now I won't hang them any other way! So sad!